Army Returns Interception 99 Yards to Repel UConn’s Rally in the Bronx

It is not easy being a Connecticut football player in November. The calendar flips to college basketball season, and you are battling for attention on your own campus with not just one national championship team, but two: the men’s and the women’s programs.

All that success in April has not had the trickle-down effect that Huskies fans desired for their new football coach, Bob Diaco, in autumn. UConn was 2-6 heading into Saturday’s game with Army at Yankee Stadium, grasping for the faintest signs of progress.

A big win last weekend, at home over Central Florida, gave the Huskies a jolt of energy. And on Saturday, they were 6 yards from Army’s end zone with less than a minute to play, trailing by 28-21.

UConn had one timeout left, but quarterback Chandler Whitmer chose not to use it. He was forced backward out of the pocket and heaved an ill-advised pass into traffic. The ball was intercepted by Chris Carnegie, a junior defensive back, who returned it 99 yards for a touchdown. Army won, 35-21, before an announced crowd of 27,453.

The deflation on UConn’s sideline was the antithesis of Army’s euphoria. The Black Knights poured onto the field to greet Carnegie en masse, and the referees gave Army a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“I said, ‘Shoot, we deserve it,’ ” Coach Jeff Monken said. “It had been four weeks since we won a game, so our guys were excited.”

It was Army’s first victory in the Bronx since 1960, and it eased some of the disappointment from last weekend’s home loss to Air Force. The Black Knights (3-6) ran for only 122 yards in that game. They needed just two drives on Saturday to exceed that total.

UConn (2-7, 1-4 American Athletic Conference) had not played Army since 2006, so it could be slightly forgiven for forgetting how punishing and relentless Army’s triple-option rushing attack could be. There was barely a pretense of passing. Army’s first drive lasted 16 plays (all rushes) for 89 yards, ending in a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Angel Santiago. It was Army’s longest scoring drive of the season.

Army then intercepted a pass by Whitmer to retake possession at its own 15-yard line. The Black Knights spent the next 5 minutes 39 seconds running the ball, again and again, until Joe Walker carried the ball into the end zone from 4 yards out, making the score 14-0.

“We can’t start a football game like that ever again, against anyone,” Diaco said. “Our immaturity and youth continue to be present at some point in time in the game. And against that style of offense, you can’t do that.”

Diaco said the moment — playing in Yankee Stadium, with Army’s cannons ringing and paratroopers sailing in from a helicopter before the game — might have been too big for his Huskies. He described his program as “young,” “infant” and “immature.”

The Huskies have 26 freshmen and sophomores on their two-deep depth chart, with only 12 seniors on the roster.

Diaco, 41, arrived after four years as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, where he won the Broyles Award in 2012 as the nation’s top assistant coach. He is effervescent and bright, but finding ways to win has proved challenging.

“The players and the coaches are more equipped to come to a venue, play on a national stage, play a different-style game, and the whole program is better because of that,” Diaco said. “We know where we’re at as a program. We’ve got a long way to go. A long way to go.”

Trailing by two touchdowns early, UConn could not stop Army’s control of the ball on the ground. The Black Knights rushed 30 times before trying their first pass, and they threw just three times for 38 yards in the game, compared with 59 rushes for 325 yards.

Still, Whitmer’s scrambling and passing kept UConn within striking distance. A 1-yard pass by Whitmer to Noel Thomas with 2:06 remaining trimmed Army’s lead to 28-21.

UConn then recovered an onside kick at its own 48, escalating the tension.

After three rushes by Whitmer, UConn had the ball at the Army 6. The play clock was winding down, but instead of calling timeout, Whitmer gambled.

“We had to rush to get the play in,” Whitmer, a senior, said. “We had one timeout left; I should have stepped up and taken the timeout. But I made a bad play worse.”

Carnegie, who had let Thomas catch a pass in front of him on the previous drive, was not about to let this one get by him. This time he stepped in front of Thomas, snatched the ball and raced down the left sideline, untouched and for the last 70 yards unchallenged, to give Army an insurmountable lead with 28 seconds left.

“I just stayed tight on my man, saw the ball go up and saw an opportunity,” Carnegie said. “It was really exciting. It was really tiring, but it was exciting.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP7 of the New York edition with the headline: Army Returns Interception 99 Yards to Repel UConn’s Rally in the Bronx. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe